Gift
by Katani-chan
Summary: A strange sprite arrives in mainframe (surprise surprise) but it's discovered that she was once very close to one of the system's inhabitants. (In other words I stink at summaries. Please read it though, It's really a very good story) R&R please
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I do not own Reboot.  
  
Some things to know so you don't get confused: I'm completely disregarding the fourth season. I just didn't like it. It was very very very bad. Also, I'm bad at accent type things so Gavin might seem kinda OOC. And this is after Daemon was defeated.  
  
  
Gift  
  


A small sprite hid in the shadows, listening to everything that was going on around her. She didn't understand half of what was being said. She knew that the mainsail was the really big one but that was about it. She felt something tap her shoulder. She shrieked and whirled around. "Sorry if I surprised you lass. I've been lookin everywhere for you. We're about to dock. I thought you'd like to know." A quiet voice replied. "Thank you captain. I have enjoyed riding on your ship." "Aye, the Saucy Mare's one of the best ships around." The sprite grinned slightly, then pulled the hood of her cloak over her head, hiding her face, though her purple eyes were still clearly visible. Gavin(?) turned around and went back to the helm. He wouldn't admit it, but that little sprite scared him.

"So what is the name of this system captain?" The sprite's voice was soft, but had a foreboding quality to it, like she was always about to give bad news. "Mainframe. It's a good system." "Ah. Who are they?" The sprite pointed to a group of sprite walking towards them. "They would be this system's guardian and other prominent sprites that inhabit this system." "I would like to meet them." "That can easily be arranged lass."

Dot was slightly surprised to see that the ship coming into the harbor was the saucy mare. It had been a long time since she had seen Gavin. "Gavin! Hello! What brought you to Mainframe?" Dot shouted as the captain descended the gangplank. "Business as usual, though I have a slightly unusual passenger with me." Gavin indicated the small hooded figure behind him. It was only about as tall as Gavin was with his hat on. Gavin turned to her. "Well, introduce yourself lass." The sprite raised its head so that they could see her eyes. A small gasp escaped Andraia and Matrix stepped back slightly. The sprite grinned, and they could tell this by the slight show of teeth. "I see that you recognize me. Interesting. Well, for the rest of you, I am simply known as Alta. What are your names?" "I am Dot, he is Bob, the guardian of this system, she is Andraia, the man next to her is Matrix, and he is Enzo." Dot pointed to each sprite as she said their name. "Yes, I know of Andraia and Matrix. I have also heard of Bob." Bob moved slightly towards her. "How?" Alta grinned again and said something. To the others it sounded like static, but Bob understood. "Oh. Is that why you wear that cloak?" "No, I just like this cloak. It makes it easier to unnerve people. If you want I can take it off." Bob nodded. Alta first pushed the hood back, revealing cerulean skin and short purple hair that went straight down and was spiky at the ends. Then she undid the tie and took the cloak off. She was wearing a silver top that had no sleeves and purple pants. She also wore worn brown boots and wore many strange bracelets.

A quiet beeping noise was heard. Alta looked at Matrix. His gun was aimed at her. She laughed a little. "Nice to see you again too Matrix. And you Andraia, It's been quite awhile, hasn't it?" Andraia shifted to battle mode. "Not long enough." Alta looked sad. "Aww, it's too bad that you don't like me because I was planning on staying here for awhile. This is a very nice system and I am quite tired of traveling." Dot looked at her brother angrily. "Matrix! Control yourself! You to Andraia." Dot turned to Alta. "I'm sorry, they don't usually act like this." Alta laughed again. It was a frightening laugh, slightly hysterical. "Yes they do. I probably would have been better if you had let them attack me though, then they could have worked out some of their frustration." Dot was about to say something to Alta when Gavin cut in. "Well my business is doe here. I'll see you again Dot." "See you Gavin." Dot looked back at Alta just as Frisket tackled her. She was about to try to call the dog off when she heard Alta laughing. "Yes yes, it's nice to see you again to boy. Calm down Frisket, I'll be here awhile." Alta calmed the dog down and patted him on the head. Dot heard Matrix mutter 'traitor' under his breath.

A little while later Alta, Bob, and Enzo were sitting in the Diner. Dot had some business to attend to and Matrix and Andraia had refused to come. Enzo sat and stared out the window as Bob and Alta talked in that weird staticy language. Every now and then one of them would laugh. Finally Cecil came to take their order. All three ordered large energy shakes. Once Cecil left Alta noticed how bored Enzo looked. "Hey Enzo, what's this system like?" Enzo instantly sat up and started telling her about everything that had happened starting from when Bob had arrived at Mainframe. Bob grinned and rolled his eyes while Alta listened intently.

They were halfway through their energy shakes by the time Enzo finished talking. Alta had one question. "Are you and Matrix really the same sprite?" "Well Yeah, 'cept he's older." Alta grinned. "Well I think I understand why he got so upset now, if that's true." "Huh?" "That is a story to be saved for a later time." Enzo shrugged and focused on his energy shake. Bob looked at Alta curiously. "Why did you decide to stay here? Is it because you knew Matrix and Andraia?" "Not really. When I boarded the Saucy Mare I decided that I would stay at the first System it reached. It being the one that Matrix and Andraia lived in was simply a bonus." "Oh."

Once they finished their energy shakes Alta stood up. "I think I'll go exploring for awhile. I'll go to the principal office when I'm done. Bye!" Alta ran out the door. Bob and Enzo could see her toss what looked like a bracelet into the air and it shift into a small zip board. "Weird." Enzo said as he watched Alta take off.

Alta giggled to herself as she flew around. "This is a nice system. Even their grungier levels are nicer than what I grew up in. Now what is that?" Alta noticed a small island not far from her. Grinning, she flew towards it.

When she reached it she paused. It looked like it had been a lively place, but there was something missing. Alta didn't know what it was though. After flying around for a little while Alta saw a sign that read: 'Welcome to Lost Angles'. "Lost Angles. So that's what this place is called." Then she noticed a sunken spot on the ground, and that it led somewhere. Cautiously, she headed down it. After following the tunnel for awhile she found herself in a large room that was almost completely empty. The only object in the room that Alta could see was a very ornate chair. She approached it carefully. Once she moved around to the front of it she saw something on it. She couldn't tell what it was though so she moved closer. She got off her zip board and walked over to the chair. The object on it was a white mask, it's expression neutral. Alta ran a finger across its surface and knew something. She wasn't sure how but she knew that the owner of this mask was gone, and that was why this island seemed so lifeless. Taking a small round charm off of one of her bracelets she pressed a button on it and the charm expanded. Alta opened the sphere and picked up the mask. Just as she was about to put the mask in the storage sphere something small rammed into her legs. Alta put the mask into the sphere and reshrunk it and put it back on her bracelet. Then she looked to see what was attacking her.

She wasn't quite sure as to what it was. It was small and round, with a tail and a green image screen set into the top of its head. "And what's your problem little guy?" A picture of the mask appeared on the screen. "Don't worry, it's quite safe with me." The small bot seemed to consider this. Then it slowly nodded its head. "Thanks for trusting me. Now, what's your name?" Another image, this time of a strange woman wearing a similar mask to the one she had found, appeared. The woman was saying something. "Scuzzy, huh? Well then Scuzzy, do you wanna come with me? There doesn't seem to be much to do around here." Scuzzy nodded again and rolled over to Alta. Alta smiled and picked Scuzzy up. Then she hopped back onto her zip board and headed to the principal office.

Bob, Dot, and Enzo were all waiting in the principal office. Dot was yelling at Bob. "What were you thinking? What if she gets lost in Level 31? Do you have any idea as to what could happen to her?" Dot had been yelling like that for almost five nanoseconds when Alta walked in, holding something. When Dot saw her she seemed very relieved. Alta looked around and saw that Bob looked rather subdued and Enzo looked about to fall asleep. She grinned. "What's going on?" Enzo hopped up and ran over to her. "Sis has just been yelling at Bob for the past five nanos because he let you go off by yourself. Sis was afraid that you'd get lost in Level 31. "Level 31? You mean that one with that one diner, was it called Al's?" "Yeah, that's it." "Oh that's nothing compared to where I grew up. Actually, we did have a level kind of like that one, but it was one of the really nice ones." Bob looked up at Alta and noticed that she was holding something. "Hey Alta, what's that?" Bob pointed at the small bundle. Alta grinned. "That is my new friend, Scuzzy." 

"Scuzzy?!" Enzo looked shocked. "But we haven't seen Scuzzy in minutes! We thought that he had gone with Hex." "Hex?" Alta looked at Dot. "Hexadecimal was a virus who inhabited this system. She was not much of a threat so we didn't bother her. Scuzzy there was her pet." "Oh. That's interesting." _And it also explains why I was drawn there._Alta looked down at Scuzzy. "Hey Scuzzy, could you show me another image of her?" The bot complied. This time Alta studied her more carefully. _Yes, she is a virus isn't she. Why does she look so familiar?_Then Alta noticed a broken mirror in the background. _No, that's impossible. There's no way that she could be her._ Dot and Bob noticed that Alta's expression was quickly getting darker. All of a sudden she dropped Scuzzy and yelled out loud. "There's no way!" Then she sank to the floor, gathering Scuzzy in her arms, apologizing to him and hugging him close. Scuzzy was the only one who noticed the tears.

After She had calmed down Enzo approached her. "Hey, are you okay Alta?" Alta didn't answer, she just looked at Dot. "Is she alive?" Her voice was so hollow that Dot couldn't help but shudder slightly. Dot looked down. "No, she was deleted in the fight against Daemon." Alta opened her mouth and screamed static. Bob was the only one who understood what she said, and his jaw dropped. Even he didn't know some of those expletives. Once again she curled herself around Scuzzy, not allowing anyone to see her face. While she sat like that Bob sorted through what she had said. He was sure that he had heard her say something about a sister, but she had added something after it which made it clear that whoever she was talking about wasn't really her sister, though she thought of her as one. _Could she have been talking about Hex? But how would she know her?_ This time when Alta calmed down she immediately left. Bob, Dot, and Enzo could see her take off on her zip board in the direction of Lost Angles.

Dot turned to Bob. "Could you understand any of it?" "Some, but most of what she said was made up of expletives. She did say something about a sister." "Sister?" "Not a real one, but someone she thought of as a sister." "Hex?" "That's my guess, though I don't know how they would know each other." Dot noticed that Alta had left Scuzzy there. "Scuzzy, what did you show Alta?" Scuzzy replayed the image. It was simply Hex sitting in the main room. Bob looked carefully. He noticed something. "What's that?" Dot looked at it. "It looks like a mirror, but it's broken." "Maybe that has something to do with it. Scuzzy, show us a time when she was using that mirror." The image blurred then came into focus, but showing Hex sitting in front of the mirror, chatting with someone. "Dot's eyes widened. "Scuzzy, can you zoom in on the image of who Hex is talking to?" When Scuzzy did this Dot gasped. It was Alta, but she looked younger and very happy, not like she looked now. While she would smile and laugh, there was something strange about it. It was real laughter and real smiles but they seemed slightly.....insane? Yes, that was it. Insane.

  
Whoo! My first Reboot fic! Pretty long too but I wanted to end it without it being a real cliffhanger like so many of my other stories. Of course then I couldn't figure out how to end it. Oh well, Review if you liked it! 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2! Yay! I'm just glad that I got it up so quick. Don't mind me, just read.

Disclaimer: I don't own Reboot, no matter how much I wished I did.

~ "Hey Alta." "Hey 'Cimal." "'Cimal?" "That's my new nick name for you." 'Cimal laughed. "You come up with a new one every minute Alta. Haven't you decided on one yet?" "You have no idea how hard it is to decide on one name for you. You're constantly changing and completely random." "That I am!" They both laughed.~ Alta couldn't keep the tears from coming again. She had been deleted. She had gotten other sprites to call her by Alta's favorite nickname for her. She wasn't going to come back. _Hex, the day your mirror broke I felt that I had lost everything. You were the only one who cared, you kept me from going random, even if you already were. You never told me the name of the system you lived in, you said that it was dangerous here. After learning this system's history I must agree with you. Hex, I'm sorry that I was not able to save either of us. You were deleted and I went random. I've failed you. I promise to fix your mirror and keep such a thing from ever happening again. I will miss you sister._

When Bob finally found Alta she was curled up on Hex's throne, asleep. He stood, watching her, unsure of what to do when he heard her mumble something. "I'm sorry..." _What does she mean by that?_ Then Bob remembered a trick that he would pull on his roommate at the academy. "Why are you sorry?" He whispered to Alta, hoping that it would work. "I failed..." "What did you fail?" "To save us..." "How so?" "Hex..deleted....I..random...." "How is that failing?" "Promised I wouldn't....promised I'd help her..." Bob felt bad for Alta, she blamed herself for Hex's deletion, and apparently for her being random. _She's random? She seems pretty normal. Well, who would've thought that Hex would sacrifice herself for us?_ Bob then picked Alta up and got onto his Zip board and headed back to the principal office.

When Alta woke up she immediately realized that she was no longer in Hex's lair. Instead she was back at the principal office. She immediately got up and started to leave when a large green hand held her back. "Where're you going?" Alta knew that voice. "Nowhere that concerns you Matrix. Now leave me be." "Alta, what's wrong?" Alta let a grim smile cross her face. Andraia was there too. It didn't stay long though. "Since when do you care? Ever since we met back in Pacom system you've hated me." "Bob told us what happened." "I cried. So what? There was only one person who ever actually cared. I'm used to being ignored and looked down upon. Why don't you just leave me be?" Matrix pulled her over to a chair and made her sit down. "We were told to keep you here." "Why do you have to listen to whoever told you? You're an adult, you can make your own decisions." "So?" "All I want is to go back to Lost Angles and be left alone. Is that such a horrible thing to want to do?" Andraia put a hand on Alta's shoulder. "Alta, calm down. You will be allowed to leave later. For now you are supposed to be resting." Alta chuckled slightly. It scared Andraia how closely it matched Hex's laugh. "Rest? I barely know the meaning of the word. This is the first system where I have ever been allowed to rest. Even in Pacom I was almost always working. The times when I came to annoy you? I was supposed to be sleeping. I went back to work the next day almost completely drained, but I had fun. It was the first time that I had had fun since Hex's mirror broke and I lost contact with her. Even when I was growing up I had to work to survive. Stealing, killing, and not caring about anyone or anything. That's what my home system teaches its inhabitants. If you can't do that you won't live to see the next minute. Hex was the first person who ever cared about me. She could tell where my lifestyle was leading me and tried to prevent it. She ad grown attached to me, had stated calling me her 'little sister', and didn't want me to become random. She did everything she could but it didn't work. Her mirror broke and I could no longer talk to her. I traveled across the net and the web, trying to find the system that she was in. Now I've found it and she's deleted and I'm being told to do the one thing in my life that I've never done. I just want to be left alone." 

Andraia and Matrix were shocked to say the least. They knew that she had seemed slightly tired whenever she had visited them, but never knew that her life had been like that. Alta saw their faces. "Don't you dare start saying how sorry you are that you've been acting so terribly to me and you had no idea. If you do then I promise that I will delete the both of you and go back to Lost Angles and delete anyone who tries to get me to come back." Andraia and Matrix nodded their heads slowly. They didn't much doubt that she was telling the truth, after what they had seen her do in Pacom.

Alta did lie down eventually. Once she fell asleep Matrix and Andraia stepped out side to talk. "I can't believe her life was like that." Andraia leaned against the wall. "yeah, I thought that she was just bored when she came to bug us." Matrix unfolded his arms. Andraia sighed. "And she was so close to Hex. I can't even imagine what's been going through her head ever since she got here." "No one could do that, she's random." Andraia sighed quietly again. _Hex probably could have._

When Alta woke up again she sighed and looked around. There was no one in the room with her. She quickly walked to the door and pulled it open. She almost tripped over Scuzzy, who was sitting in front of the door. Alta smiled. "C'mon Scuzzy, we're going." Alta started walking again and Scuzzy followed close behind. 

Just as they were nearing the exit Bob found them. "There you are Alta. We've been looking for you." Alta glared at Bob. "I'm leaving now. Do not bring me back here again. If you do I will be forced to hurt you. If you don't believe that I am telling the truth ask Matrix or Andraia about Blackline, Pacom." Alta smirked and left the principal office.

Dot, Phong, Matrix, Andraia, and Enzo arrived just in time to hear Alta's threat and see her leave. Dot turned to Matrix. "Blackline? What was she talking about?" Andraia shuddered slightly and Matrix clenched his fists. (AN: For those of you who don't like icky stories about dismembered binomes, skip this part) "Blackline was a park in a system called Pacom, which is the system where we met Alta. One day she brought us to the park. She said she wanted us 'to see her have fun'. It was one of the most horrible things we ever saw. She took one of her bracelets off and it shifted into a blade. We couldn't even move as she quickly hacked limbs off of most of the binomes there. When she finished the blade reverted back to a bracelet and she put it back on. Then she looked at us and laughed, she just laughed." (AN: The icky part's over, you can get back to reading.) 

When Matrix was finished talking Enzo was wide-eyed and Dot and Bob both had their eyes closed tight and were looking down. Phong looked shocked. Then Dot spoke, her voice just above a whisper. "I would never have thought that she would be capable of something like that." Matrix looked at his sister. "Well she is. Like she said, stealing, killing, and caring only for herself was all she knew until she met Hex." Phong looked up at Matrix. "How was she able to contact Hexadecimal?" "They had these mirrors. I'm not sure how they worked but they could apparently talk to each other using those." Phong nodded his head.

When Alta arrived at the lair she immediately sat down in the chair (Well, that's what she thought it was at least.) and took a charm off of her bracelet. She expanded and opened it, then removed the mask. For awhile she just sat and stared at it. Then she lifted it up and turned it over, planning on seeing what it was like to look through the mask. That's when she noticed something attached to the back of the mask. It was a PID. For a few nanos Alta stared at it, trying to decide on that she should do about it. Then she brought one hand to it and tapped it once. Nothing happened. _All right, twice then. And if I get up to five, I'll stop. _So Alta tried tapping it twice. It didn't work either. Starting to lose hope, Alta tapped it three times. This time, s dim glow surrounded it. The glow quickly got brighter. Alta stood up and put the mask and PID on the chair and stepped back. Soon the glow enveloped the entire mask, then the chair. Slowly it shrank, but just slightly. It started to take form, and Alta noticed that the mask was floating near the top of the shape. Then the shape began to solidify.Alta stood, too shocked to move, when she realized why the shape seemed so familiar. Finally the shape was solid and all the color had appeared. Hex's mask was a happy one as she stretched her arms and yelled "TADA!"

  
Like I said, I'm totally disregarding the fourth season. I just hated it so much. Daemon's character design was pretty good, but that's it. Well, how do you like it so far? Should I keep going? Should I not care what ppl say and keep working on it anyway? Please Review! 

9.9 ~ Oh yeah Kat, that's sure to make them review ~ Shut up Tica. Even if I don't get a lot of reviews, at least they're good! ~ That's just because the ppl who think they're bad don't bother to review. ~ You do realize that you're very bad for my self-esteem, don't you Tica? ~ Mm Hmm. Heyyy, you were hiding Tic Tacs from me! Gimme! ~ No! Mine! *Kat runs off, holding tic tacs protectively* ^_^ ~ That one always works! ~ 


End file.
